Researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center conducted a pilot study - a randomized trial - to examine the efficacy of a program called Pay Attention!, with children diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Pay Attention! is a training program to teach sustained attention: selective, alternating and divided attention.

After a diagnostic and baseline evaluation, school-aged children with ADHD were randomized to either receive 16 bi-weekly sessions of Pay Attention! (n=54) or assigned to a waitlist control group (n=51).

Participants completed an outcome evaluation approximately 12 weeks after their baseline evaluation.

Results showed significant treatment effects from parent and clinician ratings of ADHD symptoms, as well as the child’s self-reporting of his or her ability to focus, and the parents’ ratings of executive functioning.

Child performance on neuropsychological tests showed significant treatment-related improvement on strategic planning efficiency, but no treatment effects were observed on other neuropsychological outcomes.

Treatment effects were also not observed for teacher ratings of ADHD. These data add to a growing body of literature supporting effects of cognitive training on attention and behavior, but additional research is warranted.

Investigators from the Department of Music at the University of Jyväskylä, in Jyväskylä, Finland conducted a two-armed, randomized, controlled trial (RCT) with 79 depressed clients who were also experiencing anxiety, in order to compare the impact of standard care versus Music Therapy (MT) in addition to Standard Care (SC), on symptoms.

The purpose of the study was to examine the mechanisms involved in any improvements that might result from Music Therapy, with particular focus on anterior frontotemporal resting state alpha and theta brain waves*.

Measures were taken at intake and after 3 months, using the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, along with EEG results.

The research team found that music therapy significantly reduced both depression and anxiety symptoms.

After 3 months of Music Therapy, lasting changes in resting EEG were observed (isignificant absolute power increases at left fronto-temporal alpha, but most distinct for theta (also at left fronto-central and right temporo-parietal leads).

Music Therapy differed from Standard Care, pointing towards decreased relative left-sided brain activity after Music Therapy, as well as reduced anxiety.

Verbal reflection and improvising on emotions in MT may induce neural reorganization in fronto-temporal areas. Alpha and theta changes in frontotemporal and temporoparietal areas indicate MT action and treatment effects on cortical activity in depression, suggesting an impact of MT on anxiety reduction.

Investigators from the School of Medicine, University of Szeged in Szeged, Hungary, looked into the mechanism whereby hypnosis boosts human learning.

It is known in a general way that learning and memory depend on different cognitive systems that are related to separate and distinct brain structures. These systems interact, not only in cooperative ways to optimize performance, but also sometimes in competitive ways.

Previous studies have shown that by reducing the engagement of frontal lobe-mediated explicit attentional processes, improved performance can result in striatum-related procedural learning.

In this study, hypnosis was used as a tool to reduce the competition between these two systems. Researchers compared learning under hypnosis vs. in the alert state, and found that hypnosis boosted striatum-dependent sequence learning.

Since frontal lobe-dependent processes are primarily affected by hypnosis, this finding could be attributed to the disruption of these explicit attentional processes.

This result sheds light, not only on the competitive nature of brain systems in cognitive processes, but could also have important implications for training and rehabilitation programs, especially for developing new methods to improve human learning and memory performance.

Researchers from the Department of Psychology at the University of Southampton in the UK undertook meta-analyses of the efficacy of various non-pharmaceutical interventions for the treatment of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) – dietary approaches (restricted elimination diets, artificial food color exclusions, and free fatty acid supplementation) as well as psychological interventions (cognitive training, neurofeedback, and behavioral interventions).

The authors searched electronic databases to identify published, randomized, controlled trials that involved individuals who were diagnosed with ADHD and included an ADHD outcome.

Fifty-four of the 2,904 nonduplicate screened records were included in the analyses. Two different analyses were performed. When the outcome measure was based on ADHD assessments by raters closest to the therapeutic setting, all dietary (standardized mean differences=0.21-0.48) and psychological (standardized mean differences=0.40-0.64) treatments produced statistically significant effects.

However, when the best, probably blinded assessment was used, effects remained significant for free fatty acid supplementation (standardized mean difference=0.16) and artificial food color exclusion (standardized mean difference=0.42) but were substantially reduced to non-significant levels for other treatments.

The investigators conclude that free fatty acid supplementation produced small but significant reductions in ADHD symptoms, even with probably blinded assessments, although the clinical significance of these effects remains to be determined.

Researchers from IRCCS Eugenio Medea in Lecco, Italy, evaluated the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for children and adolescents with psychological impacts from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). In addition, they assessed the predictive value of certain clinical variables on treatment outcome.

Forty children, aged 4 to18, were included in the study. Twenty-eight patients received CBT at the Institute, while 12 patients did not receive any treatment at all and were counted as controls. Measuring instruments included the CBCL/4-18 and the VABS, and were administered to parents at the beginning of the study and after 12 months.

The study found a high incidence of psychological and behavioral problems in both groups of patients. After CBT, the clinical group showed a significant advantage on several CBCL scales and a greater increase in adaptive behavior on the VABS Socialization domain.

It is important to note that the Glasgow Coma Scale score, days of unconsciousness and age at injury were not predictors of the severity of psychological problems at follow-up for the patients in the experimental group.

These results, admittedly from a loosely structured pilot, suggest that CBT may be an effective intervention for young patients with psychological problems after TBI.

Investigators from the Institute of Neuroinformatics at Dalian University of Technology in Dalian, China, explored whether brief meditation could produce the changes in white matter connectivity that increase anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity and improve self-regulation. They also were interested in discovering more specifics about the mechanisms that produce these changes.

In previous studies, these researchers showed that 3 (??) hours of what they call “mental training” or meditation, based on traditional Chinese medicine (integrative body-mind training, IBMT), increased ACC activity and improved self-regulation.

Findings from this study show that 11 hours of IBMT increase fractional anisotropy (FA), an index indicating the integrity and efficiency of white matter in the corona radiata, an important white-matter tract connecting the ACC to other structures. This is a reasonable explanation of how IBMT could provide a means for improving self-regulation, in addition to perhaps reducing or preventing various mental disorders.

Researchers from the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, investigated the impact of mindfulness training (MT) on working memory capacity (WMC) and affective experience of reservists during their high-stress, pre-deployment phase. They hypothesized that MT may bolster working memory and mitigate the deleterious effects of high stress. (Working memory capacity is used in managing cognitive demands and regulating emotions. High levels of stress may deplete it, leading to cognitive failures and emotional disturbances.)

The study recruited 2 military cohorts during the high-stress pre-deployment interval, and provided MT to 1 group (MT, n = 31) but not the other group (military control group, MC, n = 17). Additionally, the study used another control group of civilians (n = 12) for comparison.

The MT intervention group attended an 8-week mindfulness training course and logged the amount of out-of-class time spent practicing formal mindfulness exercises. The operation span task was used to index working memory capacity at 2 testing sessions, before and after the MT course.

Although working memory remained stable over time in the civilian controls, it degraded in the military control group. In the mindfulness group, WMC decreased over time in those with low MT practice time, but increased in those with high practice time.

Higher MT practice time also corresponded to lower levels of negative affect and higher levels of positive affect (measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule).

The relationship between practice time and negative, but not positive, affect was mediated by WMC, indicating that MT-related improvements in WMC may support some but not all of MT's salutary effects.

Nonetheless, these findings suggest that sufficient MT practice may protect against functional impairments associated with high-stress contexts. Further testing is indicated.

Researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California at Davis in Sacramento, California, investigated if and how meditation might preserve cognition and prevent dementia.

Previous studies have indicated that meditation affects multiple pathways that play a role in brain aging and mental fitness. For example, meditation may reduce stress-induced cortisol secretion and this could have neuro-protective effects by elevating levels of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

Meditation may also potentially have beneficial effects on lipid profiles and lower oxidative stress, either of which could reduce the risk for cerebro-vascular disease and age-related neuro-degeneration.

In one cross-sectional study, meditation practitioners were found to have a lower age-related decline in thickness of specific cortical regions. But findinga are still inconsistent and preliminary, and represent a heterogeneous group of practices that need to be sorted out.

Key future challenges include the isolation of a potential common element in the different meditation modalities, replication of existing findings in larger randomized trials, determining the correct "dose," studying whether findings from expert practitioners are generalizable to a wider population, and better control of the confounding genetic, dietary and lifestyle influences.

Researchers from Brainclinics Diagnostics in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, conducted a meta-analysis of the efficacy of neurofeedback on ADHD.

Both prospective controlled studies and studies employing a pre- and post-design found large effect sizes for neurofeedback on impulsivity and inattention and a medium impact on hyperactivity.

Randomized studies demonstrated a lower effect size for hyperactivity, suggesting that hyperactivity is probably more sensitive to nonspecific treatment factors.

Due to the inclusion of some very recent and sound methodological studies in this meta-analysis, potential confounding factors from previous studies, such as small subject numbers, lack of randomization and a lack of adequate control groups, were able to be addressed and accounted for.

The researchers conclude that the clinical effects of neurofeedback in the treatment of ADHD can be regarded as clinically meaningful. Three randomized studies employed a semi-active control group which can be regarded as a credible sham control, providing an equal level of cognitive training and client-therapist interaction.

Therefore, in line with the AAPB and ISNR guidelines for rating clinical efficacy, the investigators conclude that neurofeedback treatment for ADHD can be considered "Efficacious and Specific" (Level 5) with a large effect size for inattention and impulsivity, and a medium effect size for hyperactivity.

Researchers at the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging at UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, looked at the possible links in the brain that could cause the connection between meditation practice and psychological, physiological and cognitive well-being.

Using high-resolution MRI data of 44 subjects, they set out to examine the underlying anatomical correlates of long-term meditation. (For those with a technical interest, they used voxel-based morphometry in association with a recently validated automated parcellation approach.)

They detected significantly larger gray matter volumes in meditators
in the right orbito-frontal cortex (as well as in the right thalamus
and left inferior temporal gyrus. In addition, meditators showed
significantly larger volumes of the right hippocampus.

Both
orbito-frontal and hippocampal regions have been implicated in
emotional regulation and response control. Thus, larger volumes in
these regions might account for meditators' singular abilities to
cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional stability, and engage in
mindful behavior.

The investigators further suggest that these
regional alterations in brain structures constitute part of the
underlying neurological correlate of long-term meditation, independent
of the specific style and practice of meditation.

Future
longitudinal analyses are necessary to establish the presence and
direction of a causal link between meditation practice and brain
anatomy.